By Sean Montgomery, Sports Information Student Assistant
MILLEDGEVILLE, Ga. – The No. 12 Georgia College Men's Tennis team (2-2, 1-0 PBC) fended off Flagler College (3-1, 1-1 PBC) Sunday to take a victory in their first Peach Belt Conference (PBC) contest of the season. The Bobcat men staved off a late comeback by the Saints to secure the 5-4 win.
Georgia College jumped out to an early lead after doubles action, as first-slot doubles pair Christian Graff (Lohmar, Germany) and Jannik Kumbier (Neumünster, Germany) made quick work of Lukas Storck and Kevin Gonzalez. Graff and Kumbier grabbed hold of the match and would cruise to an 8-4 victory.
In second-slot doubles, the No. 8 duo of Yannick Hass (Troisdorf, Germany) and Vincent Castermans (Grenoble, France) battled Flagler's Hermann Gertmann and Willy Hasselberg. Hass and Castermans played well and defeated Gertmann and Hasselberg 8-5.
Third-slot doubles finished next, in the form of Taylor Powell (Martinez) and Kyle Kinsler (Suwanee). Powell and Kinsler were ahead early in the match against Konstantin Dustmann and Lennart Lunëborg, leading 7-5. However, the Saints rallied back to force the Bobcats back on their heels, tying the score at 7-all. With the momentum in their favor, Dustmann and Lunëborg closed out the match, picking up the 9-7 win.
With the bout still in Georgia College's favor, the team needed to pick up three victories in the remaining six matches to hand Flagler its first loss of the season.
No. 14 Hass and No. 47 Kumbier stretched out the Bobcat lead in first and second-slot singles, as each went on to notch 6-4, 6-2 performances. Hass once again overcame Gertmann and Kumbier easily defeated Stork.
With just one more victory needed to secure the Bobcat win, Flagler mounted their impressive comeback. The Georgia College men suffered close defeats in their next three contests.
Graff, in third-slot singles, played into a tough three-set defeat at the hands of Gonzalez. Graff battled back to force a third after dropping the first set, but came up short and suffered the 6-3, 3-6, 6-2 loss. Fifth-slotted Castermans struggled in a 6-1, 6-1 defeat against Lunëborg. Playing in the fourth-slot, Powell kept it close after mounting a comeback of his own to force a tie-break in the first set. However, he lost the contest 7-6 and then dropped the next set 6-2.
With the Flagler comeback complete to even the score at 4-4, the pressure of the team win fell on the sixth and final slot; a matchup between Pedro Ecenarro (Santiago de Compostela, Spain) and Dustmann.
With each feeling the added pressure, the two dueled to keep it close in the first set with a back-and-forth display. Although Dustmann put up a good fight, Ecenarro fended off the effort and claimed the first set 6-4. With both sets of teammates watching closely, Ecenarro rose to the challenge and handily disposed of his opponent with a match and team victory-clenching 6-0 set victory.
With the 5-4 win, the Bobcat men move to 2-2 on the season. The team will be back in action Sunday, Feb. 28 at 1 p.m., traveling to No. 3 Armstrong State University.
The Georgia College Department of Athletics, two-time winners of the PBC Commissioner's Cup, sponsors 11 varsity athletic programs at the NCAA Division II level. As a Division II program, Bobcat Athletics prides itself on balancing the life of the student-athlete, evidenced by the teams' multiple appearances in post-season competition as well as documented academic success and community-service involvement. Sign up at @GCBobcats on social media for up-to-the-minute reports, and visit GCBobcats.PhotoReflect.com to purchase photo prints from home athletic contests
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